TO NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA

partners. Now, since the city of Panama had made this
a holiday occasion, the Prince saw no harm in complying
with the spirit. He would dance to his heart's content.
But to dance contentedly, a man must have an har-
monious partner. The Prince found one so harmonious
in beauty and movement that it was in his mind to dance
with her through the night. Then began the conspiring
tongues to wag. Did the Prince not realize that he was
devoting his attentions to an assistant in a drug store;
that there were mothers and daughters of society vainly
waiting their turn; that, to put the matter bluntly,
Appearances were being badly Let Down? The tide
of indignant murmurings rose and rose until it reached
members of the Prince's staff, and afterwards the Prince
himself. "An assistant in a drug store," he heard them
say. And variations of the theme were many. "Only
an assistant in a drug store," and, with a note of final
condemnation, "Just a little drug store assistant, that's
all." And the Prince replied, as if he had been caught
up in a fairy-tale, "An assistant in a drug store, did you
say ? What a jolly good drug store it must be !" So,
after the Prince had dutifully danced with her peering
ugly-minded sisters, he carne back to Cinderella; and
they danced many more fox-trots together.

The story, of course, could be told from the
S.K.lLA.'s standpoint. The present writer, however,
cannot disguise his pleasure in that rebuke to busy-
bodies. Once again the Prince had shown that he pos-
sessed that precious gift, the ability "to bend so far and
never break." We need not ignore the fact that during
these years of adventurous travelling his free-and-easy
manner offended some who met or saw or read about
him; but this very characteristic endeared him to the
younger generation who were aware that he, no less
than themselves, must pass through the phase of relaxa-
tion which is inevitable in an after-war period. One of
the Prince of Wales's accomplishments was the recon-
ciling of self-possession with spontaneous behaviour.